How to Test Ad Authentication

Active Directory single sign-on enables users to access all their domain resources with one username and password. (Network connection image by Fantasista from Fotolia.com)

Microsoft Active Directory provides single sign-on capability to all hosts that are registered to the domain (both Windows and non-Windows computers). Active Directory single sign-on authentication can also be programmed into applications so that domain credentials can be used to authenticate, prior to using the application. Test the Active Directory authentication functionality of a newly developed application prior to deployment.

Skill level:

Moderate

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Things you need

Microsoft Windows 7 computer with an application designed to authenticate to Active Directory

Active Directory domain network access

Credentials of an Active Directory account for the domain

Credentials of an account that has local Administrator permissions to the computer

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Instructions

1

Boot the Microsoft Windows 7 computer that is a member of the Active Directory domain. Log in using the username and password of an Active Directory account. If authentication was successful, then proceed to the next step. If authentication was not successful, first address possible network connectivity issues, and once resolved, proceed to the next step.

2

Reboot the Windows 7 computer. Log in to the computer using the username and password of an account that has local Administrator permission on the computer.

3

Open the program or Web application that is designed to authenticate with Active Directory. Enter the username and password of an Active Directory domain account into the username and password fields provided by the program or

Compare the results of the two authentication tests. If the computer was able to log in to Active Directory and the program or Web application was not, the program or Web application requires debugging on the code level to determine the cause of the authentication failure.